English

Precision measurement of the $^{176}\mathrm{Lu}^+$ $^3D_1$ microwave clock transitions

Atomic Physics 2025-10-09 v1

Abstract

We report precision measurement of the unperturbed 3D1{^{3}}D_1 microwave transition frequencies in 176Lu+^{176}\mathrm{Lu}^+ to a fractional uncertainty of 4×10144\times10^{-14}. We find the F,mF=8,0|F,m_F\rangle=|8,0\rangle to 7,0|7,0\rangle hyperfine transition frequency to be 10491519945.22882(38)10\,491\,519\,945.228\,82(38)\,Hz and the 7,0|7,0\rangle to 6,0|6,0\rangle transition frequency to be 11290004289.88161(36)11\,290\,004\,289.881\,61(36)\, Hz. At this precision we are able to observe the hyperfine-mediated effects in the ratio of the quadrupole shifts, from which we can directly infer the residual quadrupole moment after 3D1^3D_1 hyperfine averaging. We find a residual quadrupole moment of 2.48(23)×104ea02{-2.48(23)\times10^{-4}}\,e a_0^2, consistent with a previous assessment using a different and less direct method. With the unperturbed microwave frequencies accurately known, the residual quadrupole shift for a 176Lu+^{176}\mathrm{Lu}^+ (3D1^3D_1) optical frequency standard can henceforth be readily evaluated to <1020<10^{-20} uncertainty by routine 3D1{^{3}}{D}_1 microwave spectroscopy.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2510.06814,
  title  = {Precision measurement of the $^{176}\mathrm{Lu}^+$ $^3D_1$ microwave clock transitions},
  author = {M. D. K. Lee and Qi Zhao and Qin Qichen and Zhao Zhang and N. Jayjong and K. J. Arnold and M. D. Barrett},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.06814},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

8 pages, 5 figures, 1 table